Russia launches heavy bombers at Ukraine, targets Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia with drones and missiles
Editor's Note: This is a developing story and is being updated.
Russia targeted Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities in a mass missile and drone attack overnight on Sept. 28, launching heavy bombers that triggered air raid sirens even in regions far from the front line.
Five Russian Tu-95 bombers took off from Olenya airfield in Murmansk Oblast at approximately 1:45 a.m. local time, monitoring channels reported. At around 2:25 a.m., the Kyiv City Military Administration warned that Russia had launched MiG-31K bombers, prompting an aerial alert across the country.
Ukraine's Air Force then issued a warning at 3:52 a.m., saying Russia had likely launched Tu-95s from the Engels air base.
Throughout the night, swarms of Shahed-style drones also threatened a number of Ukrainian regions. Explosions were reported in Kyiv, Kyiv Oblast, Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi Oblast, and Sumy.
Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia have reported the heaviest damage from the attack thus far.
A five-story building in the capital was partially destroyed and residential infrastructure has been damaged in multiple districts, Kyiv City Military Administration Head Tymyr Tkachenko said. The attack also damaged non-residential buildings and parked cars.
At least five people have been injured, all of whom have been hospitalized, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported.
"Missiles are still hitting the city," he said, urging residents to stay in shelters.
In Kyiv Oblast, fires broke out in several homes and buildings in districts outside the capital during the "mass enemy strike," regional authorities said. Five people in the town of Fastiv were injured — all employees of a bakery that caught fire during the attack.
In Zaporizhzhia — the regional capital of partially Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast in southeastern Ukraine — the attack target the city's civilian infrastructure, regional Governor Ivan Fedorov reported.
Nine houses and 14 high-rise buildings were damaged, Fedorov said. The attack also damaged non-residential buildings, including a school and the production facilities of an unspecified enterprise.
At least two attacks hit Zaporizhzhia during the night, according to the governor. Five people have been injured.
"Insidious tactics, an inhuman thirst for human suffering," Regina Kharchenko, acting head of the Zaporizhzhia City Council, said the morning after the attack.
"Yesterday's life still smolders in the windows — someone's photographs, children's toys, books. People have suffered, and the city is counting its wounds again."
Explosions were also reported in Ukraine's Khmelnytskyi Oblast. Governor Serhii Tiurin confirmed that air defenses had been active over the region during the attack, but said preliminary reports indicated no casualties.
Poland scrambled fighter jets in response to the mass attack, as it has done previously when Russian strikes threatened western Ukraine. During a mass attack on Sept. 10, Poland shot down multiple Russian drones that crossed the border and breached Polish airspace.
Flight monitors reported that Poland on Sept. 28 closed the airspace over Lublin and Rseszow due to "unplanned military activity related to ensuring state security."
Russia has intensified the scale of its aerial attacks on Ukraine throughout the spring and summer of 2025. Heading into the colder months, officials have warned Ukrainians to brace for a new wave of Russian mass attacks targeting the country's energy infrastructure.
Earlier in September, Russia launched over 810 Shahed-type drones and 13 missiles in a record-breaking attack that struck the Cabinet of Ministers building in central Kyiv. Two nights later, Russia attacked again, striking Ukraine and violating Polish airspace.
The incident marked the first time a NATO member has destroyed Russian drones during the full-scale war against Ukraine. It was followed by a string of Russian airspace violations and suspicious drone incursions in NATO territory.
Amid these escalating provocations, world leaders convened in New York for the high-level U.N. General Assembly, where President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump.
In an abrupt tonal shift, Trump declared after the meeting that Ukraine "is in a position to fight and win all of Ukraine back in its original form" — with European support.
Trump later lobbed criticism at Russian President Vladimir Putin for the ongoing attacks on Ukraine.
"I'm very dissatisfied with what Russia is doing and what President Putin is doing," Trump told reporters on Sept. 25. "I haven't liked it at all. He's killing people for no reason whatsoever."
Trump has still not imposed any new U.S. sanctions against Russia despite the mounting civilian death toll.
